Samaritans at Science Museum (76)

By all accounts Chad Varah was a character but in his long life he started something that has helped many people through difficult times - Chad (1911 -2007) started the Samaritans a non judgemental listening service for people in distress.

The story is that Chad (a vicar at the time)  was so moved by the death of a young girl who had taken her own life when she started menstruating for the first time.

She took her life tragically through ignorance (due to poor education and bad parenting) the girl was so alarmed and felt she had  done something wrong.

Chad looking a bit like Dick Emery

It seems slightly odd that the place he's remembered along with the service he started  is the Science Museum (London Kensington) - I suppose technology in the form of Telephone is an important part of the Samaritans service.


Samaritans now offer their service through a variety of means including email, SMS and face-to-face.

A service that's become significant 

Memorabilia from the first branch 

As we get £97.40 - £100 beckons

Doors

More doors in the West End

There are a few 'Great' streets

And lots of great doors - Those numbers above the door are a 'great' feature too

Fox Talbot and Red 159

A figure of the 19th Century

John Soane was a man who was part of a new wave in England - pushing an enlightenment  agenda  - he was not alone in changing the way we live.

Due to the connection between the Bradford Media  Museum and  London's Science Museum there  seem to be fairly regular  strong Photographic exhibitions in Kensington (like this one about 18 months ago)  , earlier in the week I went along with a companion to check out a show that looked at the work of British pioneer Fox Talbot.

Seems that in these days (start of the 19th Century) the role for a certain type of comfortably well off  gentleman was to pursue a somewhat dilettante existence pursing interests and making discoveries, Fox Talbot was the epitome of this type of moneyed person.

Of course Fox Talbot had help, his assistant (the Dutchman Nicolaas Henneman) who later  went and formed his own business and there were others working in the field too like the Reverend Calvert Jones another 19th Century 'renaissance man'  -as well as being a vicar he was an artist and architectural expert.

Oddly it lacked some science

There were examples of Calvert Jones pictures  that included early panoramas and hand coloured prints.

What was interesting about the exhibition was to see how Fox Talbot used his developments to help him with other pursuits and spread the activity around like minded individuals  - oddly we both felt the exhibition was  a little light on the science.

We're now bombarded with visual images and it's hard to conceive the excitement and the impact of what Fox Talbot in England and the Frenchman Louis Daguerre  'unveiled' in their lifetimes (and of course beyond).

Michael Crick's Boris Versus Dave

Pretty much anything Michael Crick does on TV (and in books for that matter) smacks of engagement- by him at the very least.

The channel 4 programme last night was a clear view on the battle between the two old Etonian Conservatives  at the heart of the EU referendum - to be fair having watched it there seems to be no way that Boris could ever have been anything but BREXIT without undergoing  a fairly spectacular road to Damascus type  turnaround of the 180 degrees variety.

So this is about David's 'Place in History' versus Boris's  Place in number 10 - just over a month now.

Red 159

This isn't hand coloured

But the message is pretty clear